The Walking Dead Vol 5: The Best Defense by Robert Kirkman

This volume starts right where Volume 4 ended. The groups had just come upon the prison and were in the process of making it safe for everyone to live.  Here we pick up with the end of the process to make things safe and Glenn decides with the help of some swat riot gear he wants to syphon gas from the cars in the prison parking lot to get the generator up and running. While in the lot he and Rick see a helicopter crash. Heading out to see if there are survivors they come across Woodbury and the most hated character in this series (so far) The Governor.

I really liked this volume. I know the characters pretty well and Kirkman moved right on to the story. Having watched the series I always think I know what is going to happen next, but the further I get into these books the more the story seems to differ. I really like that the show has become different from the books. It still allows me some surprise in reading these. I will admit that I like certain characters better in their rolls on the show. For example I prefer Carol on the show instead of the comic version of her. I’m still pretty early in the series so this might change. I also really like Daryl in the show and his character isn’t even in the graphic novels.

The story for this is very well written and I wasn’t able to put this book down. I read it cover to cover. After reading this I am still excited to see what happens next and how our characters will continue to develop.  I was happy to see them finally make their way to Woodbury, because I felt Vol 3 and 4 were just ok, this one picked up and made this much more interesting. It does leave with a little bit of a cliffhanger so I am anxious to start Vol 6 soon. I will give this 4 out of 5 stars.